Monday, May 03, 2004
Rome Trip - Day 5
Today was Vatican day. We met up with our tour guide and other tour members at 10 am and headed for the line to go through the security check. This is the longest line I have ever seen. I must have been at least 600 - 700 metres long. Luckily it moved quite fast.
The Vatican is a separate country with its own postal service (much more efficient than the Italian one) and army (the 100 Swiss guards). The Papal art collection has about 14,000 pieces so we got the highlights such as the Raphael rooms, the map room, various statues, baths and sarcophogi. Of course the best part was the Sistine Chapel and St Peters Basilica, truly over the top!
The guide gave us some interesting history of the Raphael, Michelangelo and the Popes. The popes behaved just like kings with their own states, armies, indiscretions and massive egos (every picture had at least one character with the face of the current pope).
Today was definitely the best day of the trip and a good way to round off our stay.
Today was Vatican day. We met up with our tour guide and other tour members at 10 am and headed for the line to go through the security check. This is the longest line I have ever seen. I must have been at least 600 - 700 metres long. Luckily it moved quite fast.
The Vatican is a separate country with its own postal service (much more efficient than the Italian one) and army (the 100 Swiss guards). The Papal art collection has about 14,000 pieces so we got the highlights such as the Raphael rooms, the map room, various statues, baths and sarcophogi. Of course the best part was the Sistine Chapel and St Peters Basilica, truly over the top!
The guide gave us some interesting history of the Raphael, Michelangelo and the Popes. The popes behaved just like kings with their own states, armies, indiscretions and massive egos (every picture had at least one character with the face of the current pope).
Today was definitely the best day of the trip and a good way to round off our stay.
